Approximately 74,000 World War II soldiers have not had their remains recovered or identified. In an attempt to aid in the recovery and identification process, the Missing Personnel World War II database was created. The database is online at www.dtic.mil/dpmo/WWII_MIA/index.htm. This first-ever comprehensive list is a project of the Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office and was completed in 2004.

The database was created by comparing and analyzing two sources: “Rosters of Military Personnel Whose Remains Were Not Recovered” and “The World War II Rosters of the Dead.” All discrepancies were settled by using the National Archives and official personnel files. The database contains the name of the missing soldier, service number, rank, branch of service and the date of loss.

The accounting for missing World War II service members is an ongoing project. As remains are recovered and identified, their names are removed from the database.

When the war ended in August 1945, over 79,000 known soldiers were unaccounted for. This number included individuals buried as “unknown” lost at sea and missing in action.

There are similar databases for those missing from the Korean War, the Cold War, Vietnam and the Gulf War. More information and access to these databases are found at www.dtic.mil/dpmo.

This information was taken from Paul Follett’s column Tree Tracers published in the Lawton Constitution on April 21, 2008 – via SWOGS.